gamble@hawk.rice.edu (Ben Gamble) (06/07/91)
Maybe some astute watching-types out there can shed some light. I live in Texas, so I've certainly seen, and heard, my share of mockers. Got em all over campus, hell, all over everywhere. And I like listening to them, but, well, I sort of expect to hear them _sing_. You know, simple melodic patterns, repeat three or four times, switch to something slightly different. Well, outside my dining room window the other morning, I heard a sort of tuneless "chup... chup... chaaaahh" repeating in that vein, rising inflection at the end there, not what I'd call a shriek really, more of a rasp tho that's not quite right either. I turned around and it was coming from this gray-brown bird perched on the tree right outside the window. Huh, I think, strange call for a mocker. Maybe it's something I haven't seen before (oboy!). Peer at it. Nope, manifestly a mocker. So what's it doing with that weird call? Well, it's quite similar to another call I'm used to hearing around my house, but when I've followed that call before it's always led me to... a squirrel. That's right, a squirrel. They sit there on the branches and rasp away: "chaaaahh...... chaaaaahhh..... chaaaahhh" So what I'm wondering is this: is this tuneless call some sort of recognized mockingbird behavior, or was this bird actually mimicking a squirrel? (He sang like that for at least 20 minutes, by which time I had pretty much stopped paying attention.) And in case anybody knows, why do the _squirrels_ make that silly noise? TIA for any pearls of wisdom you can offer. -- Ben Gamble gamble@owlnet.rice.edu :wq